The Mark Of Athena

Fiction | Novel | YA | Published in 2012

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Chapters 37-40Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Chapter 37 Summary: “Leo”

Leo, Frank, and Hazel explore Rome. Hazel eventually leads them to the Pantheon. Hazel senses a tunnel that will lead them to Nico. Leo scans the interior, considering its infrastructure and where a secret passage could be located and determines it is near a shrine. He locates Roman numerals etched into the base of a Roman column and uses them to unlock a narrow secret passage under the building. Hazel determines nothing alive is underground and goes down first to assess the situation.

While she is gone, Frank and Leo discuss Frank’s vulnerability to fire. Leo assures Frank that he would never do anything to hurt him, and the boys note that both lost their mothers to fire. Leo ponders how he might handle Frank’s problem. Three middle-aged American tourists lingering in the vicinity glare at Leo and begin moving toward them. The men are possessed by eidolons who want to kill Leo. He jumps into the underground passage with Frank, who has transformed into a snake to fit.

Chapter 38 Summary: “Leo”

The passage closes behind them, cutting Leo and Frank off from their pursuers. Finding themselves in a sloping tunnel, they march forward until they run into Hazel, who is pondering how to unlock a door. Leo investigates and notices Greek letters on the sphere mechanism. Using the first five digits of pi, he unlocks the sphere, and the door swings open to a workshop filled with worktables and ancient tools. Two manikins in Roman armor flank the door.

Sensing the work of Archimedes, “the most famous son of Hephaestus who ever lived” and a hero to Leo’s Camp Half-Blood cabinmates, Leo believes they must be in the remains of his workshop, brought to Rome after Archimedes was killed during the Romans’ sack of his city (332). Leo praises the skill and complexity of Archimedes, prompting Hazel and Frank to defend Roman architectural prowess. Leo finds Archimedes’s lost book On Building Spheres which he believes contains secrets that could save Camp Half-Blood and defeat Gaea. Just then, the machines come to life, possessed by the eidolons. They knock out Hazel and Frank and tell Leo that he will not leave alive.

Chapter 39 Summary: “Leo”

Leo is terrified until one of the eidolons introduces himself as the one who possessed Leo. His fear gives way to anger. Looking around for a solution, he launches himself into a loft and seals himself inside. A disassembled sphere of Archimedes sits on a table, and Leo senses that he can use it to save himself and his friends, but he cannot figure out its code. The eidolons threaten to kill Leo’s friends. With time running out, Leo remembers Nemesis’s fortune cookie and retrieves it from his tool belt. He asks the fortune cookie for the sphere’s secret code and breaks it open.

Chapter 40 Summary: “Leo”

The code Leo needs is on a strip of paper in the cookie. Activating the sphere, Leo accesses the central control system and uses it to attack the machines the eidolons are possessing. He destroys the machines by overloading them, trapping the eidolons in their wiring in and frying them. Hazel and Frank regain consciousness, and the group realizes they have stumbled into a trap.

Gaea’s voice addresses the three demigods through a bronze mirror. They have been separated from their friends and are trapped in the earth, where Gaea is strongest. She shows them scenes of their friends facing death; Annabeth is alone with Arachne, and Piper, Jason, and Percy are on a spiral staircase. Gaea informs Frank and Hazel that her minions will bring them to her to die, their blood a sacrifice, but first, she will show them her friends as they die. Leo thrusts his burning hand into the mirror, melting it and silencing Gaea’s voice, then he shares a plan with Hazel and Frank.

Chapters 37-40 Analysis

The eidolons return in this section, possessing first humans and then machines through which they intend to kill the demigods. The eidolons’ return creates a dramatic hurdle for the demigods to overcome in their search for Nico and reveals the limitations of the oath Piper extracted from them earlier in the book. The inability of mortals to predict the range of possible outcomes when dealing with gods and monsters is a popular motif in ancient Greek versions of the myths, which Riordan draws on here.

The slow thaw between Leo and Frank, representing Greek and Roman camps respectively, progresses further. Leo takes Frank’s fear and its legitimacy into account as he uses his fire skill to problem solve. It becomes clear that he is thinking about how Frank’s vulnerability can be protected, something he is in a unique position to plan for as the son of the god of smithing. Latent conflict still presents itself between Greek and Roman, however, as is evident when Leo enthuses about Archimedes’s skill and brilliance, prompting Hazel and Frank to defend the Romans’ architectural achievements.

Nemesis’s warning in chapter six that Leo will face a problem he cannot solve is realized when he cannot figure out the code for the sphere that he needs to save Hazel and Frank and opens the Nemesis’s fortune cookie in desperation. It gives him the code he needs, and he remains focused on his immediate goal in the moment: destroy the eidolons and save his friends. Nemesis offered two additional cautions that will figure into events that play out from this point until the end of the novel. She advised Leo that avenging an old wrong—presumably rescuing the Athena Parthenos—could restore unity to Olympus, but they would have to accept her help. Doing so requires making a sacrifice (Percy and Annabeth’s fall into Tartarus) which will occur while the other demigods are distracted securing the statue.

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By Rick Riordan

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